The Liberty Bell Center

Visit the Liberty Bell in Independence National Historic Park and grab a photo with Independence Hall in the background. Credit: D. Cruz for Visit Philadelphia

Description

Visitor Details

The Liberty Bell Center is open year-round, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., with extended hours in the summer.

No tickets are required for admission to the Liberty Bell Center, however, visitors must go through a security screening to gain entrance.

Overview

The Liberty Bell’s home on Independence Mall is as powerful and dramatic as the bell itself. Throughout the expansive, light-filled center, larger-than-life historic documents and graphic images explore the facts and the myths surrounding the bell.

X-rays give an insider’s view, literally, of the bell’s crack and inner-workings. In quiet alcoves, a short History Channel film, available in English and eight other languages, traces how abolitionists, suffragists and other groups adopted the bell as its symbol of freedom.

Other exhibitions show how the bell’s image was used on everything from ice cream molds to wind chimes. And keep your camera handy: Soaring glass walls offer dramatic and powerful views of the Liberty Bell coupled with Independence Hall, just a few steps away, in the background.

The Liberty Bell Center is part of the U.S. National Park Service and Independence National Historical Park.

For more information on the Liberty Bell Center, click the button below.

History

The bell – now officially deemed the Liberty Bell – was cast in the Whitechapel Foundry in the East End of London and subsequently sent to Independence Hall, known at the time as the Pennsylvania State House, in 1753.

It was an impressive looking object, 12 feet in circumference around the lip with a 44-pound clapper. Inscribed at the top was part of a Biblical verse from Leviticus: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.”

Unfortunately, the clapper cracked the bell on its first use. A couple of local artisans, John Pass and John Stow, recast the bell twice, once adding more copper to make it less brittle and then adding silver to sweeten its tone. No one was quite satisfied, but it was put in the tower of the State House anyway.

Fast Facts

The Liberty Bell is composed of approximately 70 percent copper, 25 percent tin and traces of lead, zinc, arsenic, gold and silver.

The bell is suspended from what is believed to be its original yoke, made of American elm.